afghans we aren't abandoning them as we did after we drove the soviets out, but as a message to the taliban and neighbors that were not walking away either. >> you were around for the iraq war and around for much of the war in afghanistan, so i feel like you have a pretty good feel on what enough forces would be. is 3,000 too little? do you have any sense of that? >> i guess the way i would put it, just in stinctively, i think 3,000 is too little and 30,000 is too many. finding the goldilocks number. i think 30,000, i think it's too high in cost for us and in terms for the afghans themselves. more a political question than a military question. >> and finally, coming up to the state of the union. you know how this works, everybody wants to hear a certain thing, depending on which department you're in. from the point of view of the military and the world at large and america's place in it, what do you look for when the president gives this speech on tuesday? >> well, it's -- it's hard to say sort of off the top of my head. i think that clearly i would like to hear something about let's figure